A January thaw inside Rector Fieldhouse

by Pearl Watts

There has been plenty of cold and nasty weather to suffice on the
Atlantic seaboard this past week, but if all the top flight entrants for the Virginia
Tech-Microtel Invitational can safely make their way to Blacksburg, Virginia
this Friday and Saturday, the heat will certainly be on at the Rector Field
House in what promises to be the biggest and best Va. Tech Invite ever.
A multitude of boys and girls currently ranked among the top ten in the
nation for this indoor season on the Dyestat national rankings list appear
poised to improve on their current credentials at Rector's swift six lane banked
facility.

The meet begins at 5:00 p.m Friday with running trials in both the girls
and boys 55 meter hurdles and 55 meter dashes followed by running finals in the
4x800 meter relay and 3,200 run. Field event finals also begin at 5:00 p.m. in
the girls triple jump, shot put and pole vault along with the boys triple
jump, high jump and shot put.

In Friday's girls running events; among the top contenders in the 55
hurdles are Tiffany Nesfield of C.H. Flowers (MD), currently ranked number two
nationally at 8.09 seconds, along with Bever-Leigh Holloway of Eleanor Roosevelt
(MD) while the 55 dash features Holloway of E. Roosevelt, Michaylin Golloday of
Largo (MD) and Britni Spruill of Bethel (VA).

The girls 4x800 relay appears to have Virginia squads as the top entrants
with Kellam anchored by Natalie Sherbak, Herndon anchored by Heather Fisher and
the perenially strong distance squad from Western Albemarle. The girls 3,200
run has Heather Iatauro of Tri-Valley (NY) looking to fend off a host of the
top girls from Virginia including Jennifer Beury of Hidden Valley, Foot Locker
Cross Country Finalist Beth Fahey of Forest Park, Kirsten Hagen from nearby
Christiansburg High, Ritchie Vaughan from Maggie Walker and Hayfield's Morgan
Phelan.

In girls field events on Friday, top performers entered in the triple jump
include Toni Aluko of Paint Branch (MD) along with Salem's Shayla Jemmott and
Kecoughtan's Keisha Ashe from Va.'s AAA Eastern Region. Top shot putters
include Tierra Hubbard of William Fleming (VA) and Whitney Gordon of Highland
Springs (VA) while the pole vault looks like a battle among Ashley Early of Western
Albemarle, the winner at the Fork Union Invitational two weeks ago at 11 feet
4 inches, and a trio of vaulters from Mountain Brook (AL) led by Cameron
Cardwell (11-0).

In boys running events on Friday, Dominic Berger of DeMatha (MD) and
Antewan Geter from H.D. Woodson (DC) are among the top entrants in the 55 hurdles
and they will then give way to the 55 dash trials which has five of the top
seven fastest posted times thus far this indoor season among those entries listed.

In what promises to be one of the featured events of the meet, J-Mee
Samuels of Mt. Tabor (NC), DeMatha's Anthony Wiseman, Dennis Boone of Thomas Dale
(VA) and the Woodrow Wilson (VA) duo of Lashawn Merritt and Jamel Deans all
come in with clockings this season between 6.35 to 6.43 with Adian Sanderson of
Ewing (NJ) also expected to be a factor.

The boys 4x800 relay has Archbishop John Carroll (DC) up against Virginia
squads Thomas Jefferson, Herndon and Maggie Walker while the 3,200 run has a
solid field led by a trio of Virginians in Steve Walters of Green Run,
Albemarle's Hari Mix and Patterson Wilhelm of E.C. Glass.

The opening field event for the boys will be the triple jump and it should
provide plenty of entertainment with the North Rowan (NC) triumvirate of Andre
Tillman (49-05), Terry Wood (48-10) and Mark Sturgis (48-0.5) currently the
top three high school performers in the country. Tillman, Wood and Sturgis will also have to contend with Jerome Miller of Colonial Forge, who joins the fray as the number five performer nationally.

It will be a busy evening for Miller as he will also be looking to continue his
outstanding season in the high jump. Miller is tops in the nation at 7-1 and
also in the field will be Demarcus Stallings of North Rowan and Jerome's twin
brother Jason Miller, with both Stallings and Jason Miller tied for third
nationally at 6-10.

The shot put is the other field event final of the evening with the top
seeds all from Virginia with Joseph Lezard of Deep Creek, Spotswood's Nathan
Turner and Joseph Jones of Great Bridge.

Saturday's activities begin at 10:00 a.m. with both running event finals
and field event finals and with the large number of competitors entered this
year, looks to be a twelve hour affair for the track events.

In girls field events Bethel's Britni Spruill is the top seed in the long
jump with Tanique Carter of Hermitage (VA) also jumping well thus far this
season while the high jump could come down to a battle between Paint Branch senior
Toni Aluko and junior Jenna Utecht of St. Aquinas (FL).

The running events start directly with speed with the opening event the
4x200 meter relay. Four of the top ten teams in the country are represented for
this race including Bethel, which comes in with the number threee time overall
in the nation and the fastest on an unbanked track at 1:41.59 along with C.H.
Flowers, Eleanor Roosevelt and A.P. Randolph (NY) with Natasha Hastings
(24.34) expected to run a relay leg.

The 1,000 meter run looks to be a loaded event with Sarah Bowman of
Fauquier (VA) the defending champion and meet record holder at 2:53.19 against
freshman Devon Williams of Towson Catholic (MD), who has already run 2:56.86 this
season; Selena Sappleton of A.P. Randolph, who has run 3:02.41 this season for
the 1,000 run and 2:13.92 for 800 meters; Heather Iatauro of Tri-Valley and
Mackenzie Pierce of Forsyth County (NC), who went 3:00.18 last week.

The 300 dash could have its name because of the metric length of the event
and also because that is the number of competitors entered this year. Top
seeds include Portia Baker of Southwest Guilford (NC), Tiffany Nesfield from C.H.
Flowers and sophomore Francena McCorory of Bethel while Devon Williams of
Towson Catholic is also listed, with about an hour and a half gap between the
1,000 run and 300 dash expected for Williams.

If A.P. Randolph can successfully negotiate their way through the weather
from New York to Blacksburg, the 500 dash will surely be a race not to miss
with Natasha Hastings, the national high school record holder in the event at
1:11.84 scheduled to compete. In addition to already posting a time of 24.34 for
200 meters this season, Hastings has also flashed 38.38 for 300 meters and
54.21 at 400 meters and will stand a strong chance of usurping the meet record of
1:13.12 set by Promise Mose of J.F. Kennedy (Richmond) in 1997.
The 500 field is plenty deep with other top entrants including Pierce of
Forsyth, Williams from Towson, Faraign Giles of Tallwood (VA) and Ballou's
Andria Smallwood (DC).

The 1,600 run has Bowman of Fauquier doubling back and Iatauro from
Tri-Valley tripling back along with Natalie Sherbak of Kellam and Midlothian's Amanda
Patterson (VA) while the 4x4's will be headed by A.P. Randolph, currently #4
in the nation at 3:52.22 with Bethel and Eleanor Roosevelt expected to be
among their closest pursuers.

In boys field events on Saturday, Dennis Boone of Thomas Dale is the top
seed in the long jump at 23-10.25 as he keeps creeping closer to the 24 foot
standard with much of his competition coming from Andre Tillman of North Rowan,
Colonial Forge's Jerome Miller and Ronald Bias of Woodlawn (MD).

The boys pole vault looks to once again be a crowd favorite headlined by
Hickory (PA) standout Andrew Rademacher, who is ranked number three in the
country after clearing 16-1 at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, NV three weeks ago.
In addition to Rademacher there are three other 15 foot plus vaulters in the
field with Great Bridge's Daniel Magness and Daniel Brennan along with David
Lewis from Westfield (VA).

In running events, the boys 4x200 relay includes DeMatha, which has the
number five time in the nation at 1:29.91 and which was achieved on an unbanked
track, up against the likes of perennial sprint power Deep Creek and also
Suitland (MD) while the 1,000 run looks to be a pick'em affair with Westfield's
David Groff, Derrick Robbins of Woodside (VA) and Herndon's Shane Young among the
favorites.

The 300 dash shapes up as clearly one of the top events with big time
entrants including Adian Sanderson of Ewing, Mount Tabor's J-Mee Samuels, Randy Lee
from Archbishop Carroll, DeMatha's Anthony Wiseman and Lashawn Merritt of
Woodrow Wilson while the 500 dash could come down to a duel between Sanderson of
Ewing, who is # 3 indoors in the U.S. in the 400 at 48.38 and Wilson's
Merritt, the Va. state AAA outdoor champ at 400 meters who will have his first foray
competing on banked turns.

The 1,600 run has Eric Mack of North Forsyth coming in as the top seed and
he should be pushed by Walters of Green Run, Robbins from Woodside and the Va.
AAA Northern Region threesome of Thomas Jefferson's Christo Landry, state AAA
cross country champ Steve Tobin of West Springfield and a continually
improving Kris Cruz of Oakton while the 4x400 relay looks closely matched among
Carroll, Deep Creek, DeMatha and Westfield.